Conventionally, a technique that treats by performing the dielectric heating with respect to the affected part by means of the high frequency electric field generated between electrodes is known.
Although an apparatus which is called Thermotron (registered trademark)-RF8 and is manufactured by YAMAMOTO VINITA CO., LTD. is well known as a high frequency cancer thermotherapy apparatus using this technique (hereinafter, simply referred to as “a thermotherapy apparatus”), this thermotherapy apparatus was developed 30 years ago and is being used so far with hardly being improved.
Although the above Thermotron (registered trademark)-RF8 is an apparatus developed from a viewpoint of symptomatic therapy as a prognosis treatment apparatus of radiation treatment, recently, attentions are focused on a fact that as a matter of fact, a technique of necrotizing cancer cells by utilizing the principle of the dielectric heating using high frequency and heating the cancer cells up to 42.5° C. or higher has an effect of improving immune functions of normal cells, and the above matter draws attention as a therapeutic method that can change current cancer treatment.
Concretely, in the high frequency thermotherapy apparatus, although the cancer cells are necrotized by heating the cancer cells up to 42.5 degrees Celsius or higher (for example, around 45° C.), since a body temperature which is lower than the cancer cells is maintained according to a cooling action caused by blood circulation when the normal cells are heated, a fact is that surrounding normal cells are heated up to around 40° C. at the same time, attentions are focused on a fact that the above fact has an effect of improving the immune functions of the normal cells, regulating a microenvironment, preventing and/or reducing spreading of the cancer, and changing the surfaces of the cancer cells to a condition which raises the effect of drugs, and this matter draws attention as the therapeutic method that can change the current cancer treatment that depends only on three major symptomatic therapies which are called operative therapy, chemotherapy (anticancer agents) and radiotherapy.
Here, the configuration of a conventional thermotherapy apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 12.
FIG. 12 is an appearance diagram showing one example of the conventional thermotherapy apparatus and shows the configuration of an ultrashort-wave warming therapeutic apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2. This ultrashort-wave warming therapeutic apparatus comprises a therapy table part 51 on which a patient as a subject to be treated lies down, a gantry 52 for irradiating the inside of a living body with a high frequency, a high frequency generation part 53 for generating the high frequency of a MHz band (for example, 8 MHz), and a control part 54 for controlling the driving of the ultrashort-wave warming therapeutic apparatus itself.
As shown in the example of FIG. 12, a main body central part of the gantry 52 is provided with a through hole 501, and an inside surface of the through hole 501 is provided with a supporting part 502 which is rotatable with respect to a gantry main body. Further, the supporting part 502 is protrusively provided with arms 506 and 507 which are expansible/contractible in a diameter direction, and the tips of the arms 506 and 507 are provided with disk-shaped electrode plate 508 and 509.
Electrode parts 504 and 505 comprise the above arms 506 and 507, the above electrode plate 508 and 509, and cooling pads 510 and 511 which are attached on the surfaces of the electrode plates 508 and 509 (the surfaces spliced on the living body). When performing treatment, the arms 506 and 507 of the electrode parts 504 and 505 are expanded/contracted so as to splice the electrode plate 508 and 509 on the patient.
The above cooling pads 510 and 511 are a cooling means which suppresses heating on the surface of the living body in the vicinity of the electrodes in the case that the affected part exists in a deep layer region of the living body, it is configured to circulate cooling water within the cooling pads 510 and 511, and it is possible to suppress the heating on the surface of the living body and relieve thermal pains inflicted on the patient under treatment by means of the cooling pads 510 and 511 (the above, refer to Patent Document 2).
Further, as an apparatus for ensuring maintenance support of a body position under treatment, for example, there is a conventional invention disclosed in Patent Document 3. The conventional invention disclosed in Patent Document 3 comprises an air mattress comprised of an assembly comprising a plurality of cells filled with air and a turnable backrest part so as to ensure the maintenance support of the body position of the patient while keeping various body positions. For example, in the case of performing treatment in a recumbent position, air is sent only to cells on one side of a width direction (or air is let out) so as to help a laterally facing treatment, and in the case that the affected part is an abdomen or the like, the backrest part is lifted only a predetermined angle so as to become a somewhat-get-up position. In addition, the conventional invention disclosed in Patent Document 3 has one aspect that employs a separately-excited oscillation method based on a first frequency and a second frequency and irradiates the affected part with a high frequency electric field of a high frequency corresponding to the depth of the affected part so as to eliminate the need for an electrode exchanging work performed in the conventional thermotherapy apparatus, for example, an exchanging work that temporarily interrupts operations in the middle of warming in the case that the affected part exists in both a surface layer and a deep region and then changes a combination of electrodes.
However, although the conventional invention disclosed in Patent Document 3 has one aspect of eliminating the need for the electrode exchanging work as described above, a pair of electrodes 508 and 509 exemplified in FIG. 12 generally uses electrodes which have different electrode sizes in accordance with the depth of the affected part to be treated. For example, in Thermotron (registered trademark)-RF8 which is manufactured by YAMAMOTO VINITA CO., LTD. in Japan, electrodes used for treatment have six kinds of electrodes whose diameter φ is 70 mm, 100 mm, 140 mm, 210 mm, 250 mm and 300 mm. Further, a lesioned part is treated in accordance with a combination of electrodes suitable for a part to be warmed, concretely, in the case of warming of a superficial lesioned part (superficial focus), the electrode of 70 mm or 100 mm in diameter and the electrode of 250 mm or 300 mm in diameter are used after making them to become opposed to each other, in the case of warming of a latent lesioned part (latent focus), the electrode of 140 mm in diameter and the electrode of 250 mm or 300 mm in diameter are used after making them to become opposed to each other, and in the case of warming of a deep-seated lesioned part, the electrode of 210 mm in diameter and the electrode of 250 mm or 300 mm in diameter are used after making them to become opposed to each other (refer to descriptions of “attentions relating to treatment” in Non-Patent Document 1).
Further, the therapy table part 51 exemplified in FIG. 12 can be adjusted in a range of its height approximately from 740 mm to 900 mm (in Non-Patent Document 1, from 770 mm to about 980 mm) by a lifting/lowering mechanism, and a predetermined position of the therapy table is provided with an opening part for lower electrode pass. Furthermore, during performing treatment in a supine position or a prone position, the procedure is that after performing setting of the opening part of the therapy table part, the patient is put on the therapy table, and then, after moving the therapy table to the through hole of the gantry and setting the electrodes, warming therapy is started (refer to descriptions of “dimension and weight of each part”, “selection and combination of electrodes”, etc. in Non-Patent Document 1).
In the treatment using the high frequency thermotherapy apparatus described as above, although the number of treatments and a treatment time are different depending on disease, for example, the treatment time (a warming time) of one time of treatment is about 40 minutes, and 5 to 10 times of treatment are performed at apace of 1 to 2 times per week (for example, refer to Non-Patent Document 2).